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Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff and wire
State grants are available for clean water projects
The state Department of Health's Clean Water Branch has up to $200,000 available for projects that will prevent and reduce nonpoint source pollution of state waters.Polluted runoff from yards, streets, playgrounds, parks and parking lots is the nation's largest water-quality problem, the Department of Health said in announcing the grants.
Previous grants have gone to the Friends of Heeia to remove alien species; to Hui Ku Maoli Ola to restore a section of Waimanalo Stream; and to the Central Maui Soil and Water Conservation District to reduce erosion and sedimentation.
Individuals and groups are eligible to apply. For an application, see www.hawaii.gov/doh/eh/cwb/pubntcs/fy2004rfp.
For more information, contact Lawana Collier, 586-4345.
[ TAKING NOTICE ]
OFFICERS
>> The Hawaii Sub-region of the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association has elected Yun Soong Jim president; Loy Fook Leu, treasurer; Edna Lau, secretary; and Jane Pang, national director.>> New members to The Salvation Army's Honolulu advisory board are Dr. Edwin Cadman, dean of the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine; Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association; Abel Malczon, senior vice president of operations for American Savings Bank; and Graham Pearce, vice president and senior investment management specialist and financial consultant with Smith Barney.
>> The Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame, operating since January under its new corporate name, Hawaiian Music Foundation, has added five new community leaders to its board of directors. They are Lynne Johnson, chairperson of the Honolulu Symphony Foundation; Randie K. Fong, head of the Kamehameha Schools Performing Arts Department; M. Dolly Strazar, president and executive director of Lyman Museum in Hilo; Jacqueline "Skylark" Rossetti of Hilo, former program director of KCCN-AM Radio; and Brickwood Galuteria, co-host of KINE-FM Radio's "Aloha Morning Show," and past president of the Hawaii Academy of Recording Artists.
>> The Disciplinary Board of the Hawaii Supreme Court has elected Charles T. Kleintop chairman; J. Michael Seabright, vice chairman; Diane D. Hastert, secretary; and Richard A. Coons, CPA, treasurer.
Recently appointed board members are Gary M. Farkas, Joyce Ingram-Chinn, and Blake T. Okimoto.
>> Le Jardin Academy has elected Barry W. Marr, a partner in the law firm of Marr Hipp Jones & Pepper, its chairman of the board. He has been a board member since 1996.
New trustees include Randy Grune, president and CEO of the Hawaii Stevedores, Inc.; Patricia W. Sheehan, president of the Hanalei Land LLC; Les R. Sherrill, CEO of South Pacific Steel Corp./Dingo Brande LLC; and Kimberly Wang, vice president and director and grants administrator of the Charles B. Wang Foundation, and owner/operator of the Hawaiian Islanders Arena Football Team in Hawaii.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffPolice seek owners of 4 burning vehicles
Police are trying to identify the owners of four cars that were burning yesterday morning in four different locations on Oahu.Firefighters were called to all four locations to put out the fires. The first was near Camp Erdman in Waialua at 12:07 a.m., the second was near 41-530 Waikupanaha St. in Waimanalo at 12:47 a.m., the third at 96-1173 Waihona St. in Pearl City at 12:49 a.m. and the fourth at the Mililani District Park at 94-1150 Lanikuhana Ave. at 1:21 a.m.
In each case, police were already on the scene by the time firefighters arrived and the passenger compartments of the cars were engulfed by flames, said Capt. Emmit Kane, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman.
[ COURTS ]
Man indicted for entry into Travolta isle home
A grand jury has indicted a Honolulu man with breaking into the Oahu home of actor John Travolta and his locally born wife, actress Kelly Preston.Charles Chang was charged with first-degree criminal trespass for unlawfully entering the couple's Kalanianaole Highway home on July 23.
He was also charged with second-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Chang could not be reached for comment.
Credit union manager charged with fraud
A former assistant operations manager of a Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union has been charged with three counts of bank fraud for stealing more than $108,000 from three customers between May 2001 and January 2003.Zenaida Pena, who also served as financial services representative and financial services officer, allegedly accessed the accounts without their authorization and purchased money orders and cashier's checks payable to herself, her creditors and relatives to pay her mounting expenses, according to a complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court.
Pena could not be reached for comment.
2 plead no contest to public assistance theft
A Kalihi couple charged with fraudulently obtaining more than $160,000 in financial assistance and public housing benefits has pleaded no contest to felony theft counts.The charges cover a nine-year period beginning in 1994 in which Maleta Siliga, 42, and her husband Siliga Siliga, 54, concealed the fact that he was employed and living in Kalihi Valley Homes with his family, according to a release from the state Attorney General's Office.
She pleaded no contest Oct. 7 to first-degree theft for fraudulently collecting financial assistance, food stamps, child care and medical benefits and housing having a value of $162,000. He pleaded no contest Wednesday to first-degree theft for fraudulently receiving public housing valued at over $39,000.
They were charged earlier this year after an investigation by the state Department of Human Services. They will be sentenced Feb. 4 by Circuit Judge Derrick H.M. Chan.
Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
